Three Geothermal Bills Look to Speed Up US Development

U.S. Geothermal Permitting and Lands Manager Scott Nichols and BLM Renewable Energy Team Leader Ray Brady on the morning of legislative hearings that could affect geothermal development. Photo: GEA The U.S. House Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources (of the Committee on Natural Resources) covered three bills . In his opening statement, Subcommittee Chairman Doug Lamborn referred at length to current setbacks for geothermal that could be improved with legislation. “The geothermal NEPA review process requires over 175 document sets for each project,” the Chairman explained. “This is not 175 required documents — but document sets — which equates to hundreds or even thousands of pages of documents for one project. These requirements are significant setbacks and lead to extremely long delays in geothermal production.” The Subcommittee also released a visual timeline whi...